Electrical wiring harnesses are commonly used in the automotive, electrical appliance and many other fields. Such a harness consists of an assembly of wires cut to the proper lengths and assembled in a group or bundle which can be easily installed in the apparatus being manufactured and which greatly simplifies the electrical wiring thereof. In the manufacture of these harnesses, a group of wires of proper size and length is assembled together and then spot taped at a number of points along its length by wrapping several turns or wraps of tape around the group or bundle of wires. After this "spot" taping operation, the harness may either be taped throughout its length or may be installed directly in its place of use without further taping.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,815 to Buckley et al. discloses a tape wrapping apparatus for wrapping a bundle of wires which includes a rotatable head having a slot for receiving a bundle of wires and rotating to wrap tape around the wires. A tape handling mechanism uses a slide and a take-up arm which operate to provide stored tape to the head without requiring tape to be pulled from a supply reel during insertion and wrapping of the wire bundle. Also, a knife is used to cut the tape prior to rotation of the head. However, this machine requires the entire frame and reel to be moved relative to the bundle to cause engagement of the wire bundle in the head. In addition, the entire supply reel must be moved relative to the rotatable head to provide the tape slack for the next cycle of operation, thereby requiring an excessively complex device and process. Also, the tape cutting knife is stationary thereby requiring delicate manipulation of the tape to achieve successful cutting. The knife also disadvantageously cuts the adhesive side of the tape possibly causing the tape to adhere to the knife resulting in interruptions in the tape process.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,414,451 to Sejda discloses an apparatus for wrapping pressure sensitive tape around a bundle of wires which includes a tape feeding mechanism having a pivotally mounted stripper lever for supporting a supply reel of tape. A crank lever pivots the stripper lever when a wrapping chuck is rotated to create a slack portion or loop of tape adjacent the tape reel. As a result, the tape is pulled from the reel only if tape is actually used. However, the whole supply reel must be moved to create slack in the tape thereby creating an unnecessarily complex device and operation process. Moreover, this apparatus uses a knife to cut the adhesive side of the tape thus possibly resulting in undesirable interruptions in the process due to the tape adhering to the knife. Also, this apparatus fails to include a protective device for preventing damage to a user's fingers by inadvertent insertion of the fingers into the machine.
Consequently, there is a need for a tape wrapping machine which is simple, inexpensive yet capable of effectively wrapping tape around an article while minimizing both the complexity of the machine and the effort required by the user of the machine.